Truce
by darkblueheaven
Summary: Magenta and Columbia didn't get along very well at first, and Frank is sick of their bickering. Told from Columbia's POV. So, the first time I put this up it loaded a bunch of html code with it. No idea why! This is the second attempt, and hopefully it'll work right this time.


"Leave it!" The maid snapped at me the minute I reached out to touch the face of the clock.

"But it-"

"I said leave it!"

I recoiled my hand as though she'd slapped my fingers. "It's got the wrong time," I explained.

Magenta rolled her darkly painted eyes at me. She spun around and stalked off down the hall with her mop and bucket. I stood there staring after her wondering what I'd done wrong this time.

Time.

Time was fleeting, they said.

At first I'd thought that meant time went by so quick you had to grab your fun where you could find it. Magenta's creepy brother had looked at me like I was dumber than a bag of rocks and told me there was more to it. Time is fleeting in the sense that it's transitory and therefore mutable and thus could be used to transcend the heavens... He threw in some other big scientific sounding words that I think he purposely added to make me feel small, and Magenta had stood there with her arms folded sneering at me. Then she told me I was the biggest fool on the planet, even a CHILD knew that much!

Well, maybe the kids on their planet did, but space travel had barely been invented on mine, so how in the world was I supposed to know about time travel?!

She was always like that. Mean and cold. She was the only other girl around, though, and... Some things you just can talk about with men.

Not that I could really talk to Magenta, either. She barely listened to me and usually only replied with a "Hm," or an "Mmhm," or a "Do shut up!" Other times she said nothing at all and I'd think she hadn't heard me at all until she'd turn and raise an eyebrow or scowl at me so coldly I got goose bumps.

That was almost worse than her not talking to me at all.

I didn't have anyone else, though. Frank was always busy in the lab, and Magenta's creepy brother was usually down there with him doin' god knows what- not that I really wanted to talk to him, anyway. Riff Raff treated me with so much disregard it made Magenta's cold shoulder seem down right tropical.

I'd thought about going home, but that was a terrible idea. It was also not really possible. I couldn't go home even if I wanted to. My parents would never take me back, they'd made that crystal clear the night Frank had taken me to get a few things. I didn't really want to, anyway. Frank might be busy lately, but being with him was indescribable. Everything about him was magical. When he looked at me I felt about twenty feet tall and like the most beautiful woman in the world.

When he was too busy or had someone else in his bed, I felt about two inches tall and invisible.

"Hey," I trotted after Magenta. "Did you and Frankie ever..."

She paused her sorry excuse for mopping and turned her eyes on me. "Did I and the Master ever... What?"

I tried not to laugh, but I loved the way she couldn't say her W's right. 'What' sounded like 'vot' when she said it. Once, Frank had asked her to make arrangements to have some equipment sent over and she said "Vot time on Vendnesday do you vant it delivered?" It was the first time I'd met her, and I'd laughed and laughed. It was just too cute and funny! She sounded like some old vampire off the late night creature feature. Magenta, however, did not think it was funny and didn't like me laughin' at her and had been giving me the cold shoulder ever since.

I stifled a laugh now, though. "Were you ever with him?"

"With him?" She scoffed like that was the craziest idea she'd ever heard. "No."

"Why not? Don't you like him? You're so pretty, I know he likes you."

A look of disgust clouded her features.

"What?" I asked her. "What's so bad about that?"

"The Master is..." Magenta sighed and shook her head. "Leave me, I'm trying to work."

"I hate to be the one to break it to you, but you're kinda terrible at cleaning," I said, running a finger tip over the shelf I'd watched her dust barely twenty minutes ago and pulling up an inch of dirt. "I guess they do that differently on Transsexual, too, huh?"

Magenta pursed her lips together and looked me up and down for size. She smirked and nodded. Her left hand went to her hip and she leaned against her mop handle. "Why all the questions, Hm?"

"I was only wondering," I said with a shrug. "I'm bored."

She narrowed her eyes at me and shook her head. "You're not a very good liar. What do you really want?"

I gasped and my eyes popped wide open. It was like she could see right through me, and I hated it! "I just... I mean..."

Magenta took two steps forward so we were face to face and only inches apart. "Just what, huh?"

She looked down the slender bridge of her nose at me and smiled maliciously. Well, she looked up, really. I was about three inches taller than her, easily. The effect was the same; under her steely gaze I crumbled and told her the truth.

"I wanted to know if you'd been with him cuz maybe you'd know..." I sighed hopelessly. "Does Frank treat everyone the way he treats me?"

"And how is that?" She asked me in return.

"Like one minute you're the center of his universe and the next he doesn't know you're alive," I said. "Does he do that to you, too?"

Magenta scoffed again. "I've never been foolish enough to sleep with the Master," she said with a derisive little laugh. "But rest assured, he treats all his playthings the same."

My heart sank into a puddle on the floor. "Oh."

"With one exception," she went on. "He typically just throws his lovers aside when he's done with them. You're a very lucky girl," she said it almost softly and her dark lips turned up in a cruel sneer. "He must have found some other use for you to keep you around so long after he's found someone else to warm his bed." She turned and went back to her lack luster attempt at mopping.

I stood there watching her, steaming at the way she always did this. There was nothing really malicious with the words themselves, but it was her tone! Her tone was so ice cold and sharp, I felt like I slipped and sliced myself in half just listening to her. "Why do you always gotta be so mean to me, huh? What did I ever do to you?"

"Other than take over my bedroom and litter the walls with your stupid pictures and leave your laundry all over the floor for me to pick up?" Magenta raised and eyebrow at me and flipped her dark red curls over her left shoulder. "What about making me get up at ridiculous hours to cook you those loathsome..." She stammered angrily before finding the word she was searching for. "Waffles and ice cream!"

I gasped at her and frowned. "I only asked cuz Frank said you knew how to cook and-"

"I serve the Master, not you!" She snapped gruffly.

I felt tears sting at the corners of my eyes and I had to bite my lower lip to keep 'em in check. "I... I didn't think I was such a bother to you..."

"Exactly!" She shoved her right pointer in my face. "You didn't think! You pathetic excuse for a race never does!"

"I can't help where I was born!" I screamed at her.

"And I am not your maid!" She yelled back in my face. "If you want some thing, you get it yourself! You want waffles, you make them yourself!"

But it sounded like 'if you vant vaffles', and even though I was upset and angry it tickled my funny bone. I giggled at her, unable to stop myself.

"What is so funny?!" Magenta snarled at me.

"Vhat is so funny," I laughed harder, echoing her. Wayward tears slid down my face and I wiped them away angrily on the sleeve of my shirt. "Maybe I do vant some vaffles. Maybe I vant all the vaffles in the vorld, and I vant them on Vendnesday! Maybe after that you can vipe the vindows, too!"

"Shut up!" She glared darkly at me, her tiny hands balled up into fists.

"The way you talk!" I giggled and wiped my eyes, snickering at her accent.

"The way I talk?!" She jabbed her right pointer finger into my collar bone. "At least I can speak in a register that doesn't shatter glass! I grow so weary of your constant ear-splitting shrieking!"

"I don't shriek!" I shrieked, and then I laughed bitterly at myself. "How come you talk like that? Frankie doesn't, and neither does Riff. Isn't he your brother?!"

"Of course he's my brother!"

"So how come he doesn't talk like you?" I asked her in all seriousness. "I'd a figured that was cuz of where you're from, but I guess it's not, huh?"

"I don't talk any differently than my brother!"

"Oh yes you do!" I roared with laughter. "He sounds all slimy and, I dunno, British or something, and you sound like some old vampire movie!"

"An old what?" Magenta looked taken aback. She blinked at me, confused and livid.

"A vam-pi-ire movie!" I said it slowly.

"I heard what you said!" She snapped at me. "I don't know what that means!" Magenta stalked away from me looking furious. Her back to me, she shook her head.

"You don't know what a vampire is?" I was stunned. "You come from a galaxy called Transylvania and you never heard of vampires?"

"No, and we don't have your Santa Clause or leprechauns or virgin births, either!" She reeled towards me. "I hate this world! Your stupid folk stories and idiotic myths don't mean anything at all!"

I rolled my eyes and giggled. "OK, you're right about most of that stuff. But vampires are great! You've really never seen a vampire movie?"

"The Master watches a lot of Steeve Reeves movies..." She sighed, sounding perfectly frustrated with me.

"Oh no, you gotta see Dracula, Brides of Dracula, Blood for Dracula, Fearless Vampire Killers, and The Kiss of the Vampire," I said, ticking titles off on my fingers. "Oh! And Black Sunday! Although that last one is really about a witch, but it's still incredible!" There was a joke in there comparing her to the evil with in the movie, I was sure of it, but I just couldn't put a punch line together to save my life. "I can't believe you don't even know what a vampire is! We should go to the movies or something."

Magenta blinked at me and exhaled. Everything in her expression looked like she was gonna tell me to go hell with my silly vampire movies. "Why? So you can make fun of the way I talk some more, huh?!"

We were interrupted by the rattle of the elevator as it clanked it's way down to the ground floor. A moment later the sound of Frank's six inch platform heels could be heard clacking down the hallway toward us, and we both turned and stared in the direction the noise was coming from.

"Now look what you've done!" Magenta hissed.

"Me?! You started it!"

"You did, interrupting me while I'm trying to-"

"Oh, if you really think anyone believes you do any real cleanin' around this place, you're crazy!"

"Ladies, ladies!" Frank pranced into the room in nothing but fishnets and a silky black pair of britches. He must just got out of bed to not even have a corset on yet. "What's all the ruckus about, hm?" He asked as he strolled over to my side. He ran a soft finger down my cheek and I melted.

"This stupid girl is getting in my way!" Magenta snapped.

"She's deliberately being mean to me!" I snapped back.

Frank rolled his heavily painted eyes at us and heaved a great heavy sigh as though he were terribly exhausted by us. "Magenta, Columbia," He moved behind me and laid his heavy hands down on my shoulders. "If you two can't get along then I'm going to have to do something about it. You don't want me to have to do something about it, do you?"

Though he spoke softly and fairly purred the words in my ear, all the while nuzzling his mouth gently against my throat, his words left a cold, oozing feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach. For as much as I loved him, I knew Frank had a really nasty side. I'd seen him whip Magenta's brother mercilessly over the littlest things, and I'd heard screams coming from the lab more than once. He hadn't ever hurt me... I'd never imagined he would, but... His words were clearly a threat, and that scared me. I glanced at Magenta and she looked about two shades paler than her normal deathly white, so I guess I wasn't the only one Frank had that effect on.

"No, Master," she dropped her eyes away from him and clenched her mop tightly.

"No, Frank," I whispered like a frightened little kid and shuddered when his lips pressed softly against my cheek.

"Good girls," Frank sneered. He dropped his hands away from me and strode closer to Magenta. His eyes lingered on her for a moment before he grabbed her by the chin and pulled her face up so she had to look at him. "I'm glad we could all come to an understanding. I'm afraid neither of you would like the alternatives. Now then-" he pulled away from her and strode back towards the hall he'd come down. He turned and put both his hands on his hips. "I'm going back to my bed to see to... Erm... I believe he said his name was Bruce... so keep quiet. I don't want to be disturbed again!"

"Yes Frank," I shuddered again.

"Yes, Master," Magenta bit her lower lip almost nervously.

"Music to my ears, girls," Frank favored us with a haughty little sneer. He spun around and stalked off back to his boudoir, leaving the two of us alone once again.

The feeling that I'd just dodged a bullet- or a bull whip- washed over me and I exhaled a ragged little sigh of relief. I glanced across at Magenta, who looked just as rattled as I felt. "Truce?"

Magenta nodded slowly. "Truce."

I followed her around the rest of the day, watching her clean, sometimes even helping out. Neither of us said another word.


End file.
